What about this hunting season

I wonder what this hunting season will bring.

The weather and number of critters, however, aren’t foremost in my mind. The number of hunters is.

If the summer months are any indication, there will be crowds.

When things shut down last March and we were told to shelter in place I expected the outdoor industry would take a big hit. Instead it appears that just the opposite happened. Folks flocked to the outdoors. Trailheads were packed, boat ramps crowded, and campgrounds full.

I had been worried that Rock Creek Marina, where we buy gas for our boats, might close. The next closest marina is more than 30 miles away. High water in recent years flooded many of the campsites at Rock Creek, and I feared this might be the last straw.

Hardly.

The marina had a terrific season.

While folks might not have been able to work, and their kids were unable to attend school, they could still go to the lake.

Driving through Paradise Valley in mid-August I was astounded at the number of boats on the Yellowstone River. I only remembered it being that busy on the Fourth of July.

Looking for a spot to camp on that same trip, I found every campground between Livingston and Cooke City sporting no vacancy signs. Although most every attraction and all the accommodations in Yellowstone Park were closed, the roads were as busy as I’d ever seen them. Cooke was packed with tourists as were the other gateway communities.

Even the Beartooth Pass was crowded, with a steady string of traffic from Cooke to Red Lodge.

Until a few days ago traffic on Highway 2 across the Hi-Line was still at summer levels. Campers, motorhomes, and pickups pulling boats, most with out-of-state plates, far out-numbered local rigs.

Selfishly, I wished they’d go away. And while traffic has visibly thinned in recent days, I suspect it will return. Hunting season typically brings a lot of folks to the state.

With weather as mild as it’s been this fall, there’s not even the specter of a looming storm to keep folks away.

Pheasant season opens in less than two weeks and should be a good barometer of what’s to come when the general big game season opens later this month.

I’m hoping folks got their fill of the outdoors this summer and are now anxious to get back to work. I know I wish they would.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected].